unexpected joy items:

+ Laurel finally replied to my email. And she'll still respect me in the morning ;)+ Unexpected (and sweet) email from a friend.+ Jonah said he'd been to a service Arlington St. Church with the Boston Gay Men's Chorus and really liked it and wanted to go back. It makes me happy when people find churches they want to return to. He asked if I'd been to any UU services, and I said I haven't, though I probably should, but that I was hesitant because my sense was that UU churches tended to be more secular, and I liked my churches to be, well, churchy (I talked a little bit about the Diana Butler Bass book I'm reading -- the "what makes your church different from a Rotary Club?" bit... since there are plenty of secular reasons for doing good works and the importance of community and all that -- and also mentioned the fact that, while I hesitate to say I've become more High Church/orthodox...). He said the secular slant was appealing to him (though the Sunday he went, there was a reading from the Gospel of Luke and they sang "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night"). We agreed that we'd find a Sunday in January I could go with him, 'cause I do like exploring other faith traditions, and I love getting to talk church with people.+ quoth Ari: bff means never having to say, "Actually, it was a rhetorical question" *g*+ My mom said that Shannon (hairdresser, in the UCN choir -- so saw me Christmas Eve ... which was the day I got it done, actually) said my haircut is perfect for my face.

[Edit: At my parent's house, while I was on the family computer, people were watching Two and a Half Men in the other room, and I enjoyed the episode. I was a little uncomfortable with the "dude in a dress" bit, but even that was handled better than I had expected.]

My housemate texted me "Merry christmas" yesterday, and a friend said "Merry Christmas" in an email this morning. Both times I thought, "But Christmas was on Thursday," but it occurred to me today that, oh yeah, there are twelve days of Christmas and we are in the liturgical season of Christmastide, so this is actually more accurate than people saying "Merry Christmas" to me before Christmas Day (when I have to re/interpret it as "I hope you have a Merry Christmas").